Imagine this. The potential customer has found your website. They’re looking, they’re focusing, they’re reaching for their mouse … but where will they click?

Of course, we want them to click on a link within the site and not bounce away from the site. After that, we want to see them click our call-to-action.

Your number one goal for your website is to attract and keep visitors. Here are ten tips to help you accomplish that goal.

What are some ways you can improve the chances that a customer will stay on our website?

1. Improve readability. Add white space, or change fonts (see 7 Secrets for Choosing the Right Font for Your Webpage). Get rid of clutter. Readers are more likely to stay on a site where it’s easier to see the information.

2. Write great headlines. Attracting readers is a big part of the game. But don’t write outrageous headlines that don’t match the content. Readers will learn to distrust your site and will go away.

3. Include customer testimonials. These compel the reader to trust your claims, increasing the chance they’ll look around on your site.

4. Have videos on the site. A picture’s worth a thousand lines of HTML, as they say.

5. Have a blog where employees contribute. Prospects are more likely to trust the people behind the company versus the “company.” Adding the opinion of real people, even customers, can be of more interest to the readers.

6. Make your call to action obvious on your landing page. Be sure to include the solutions that you are providing also. The place to click needs to be obvious.

7. Put most important information above the fold. Users need to see the crux of your message without having to scroll.

8. Make it easy to find information. You’ve been on those sites where it’s just difficult to find what you’re looking for.  If it’s easier for the reader to go back to the original search and try another company, they will.

9. Provide access to tools your customers need. Assessment tools, links to useful sites, or calculation tools will keep users coming back, even if they aren’t buying today.

10. Have a prominent Search Box. Users need to have an easy way to find just what they are looking for.

Look at your site from a consumer’s point of view. What would drive you away? Try some of these tips and watch your bounce rate decrease.

Get Posts Like These Delivered to Your In Box Each Morning:
If you like what you read today, you can have these blog posts delivered to your in box each morning by clicking marketing blog. Or, you can sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter by clicking marketing newsletter.

We all know that testing your email headlines, website layouts and creative concepts is the best way to improve the results of your marketing campaigns. But we also know that A/B split testing can be a pain. So, we took a look at the Which Test Won? website and found new research that reveals 5 ways you can improve the conversion rates on your campaigns.

Here they are:

1. Add a Video: The infamous music downloading company, Napster, tested 2 landing pages, one that featured a “What You Get With Your Subscription” video and one without. The page featuring the video got 18.5% more free trials and paid subscriptions.
2. 

   Grow your conversion rates with these simple tweaks.

   Use a British Accent: Now that we’ve established you should have a video, you should take into account the test done by Eyevision, a video marketing company which found that using a British accent voiceover on a video on the homepage resulted in a 6% lift in free downloads.  Interestingly though, in the UK an American accent upped downloads 8%.

3. Use Fewer Words in Headlines: A test done for World Class Driving confirms that when it comes to Pay-Per-Click headlines, less is more. By cutting the verbage down from the explanatory title “Drive 5 Supercars. The US Supercar Tour” to “Life is Short. Drive Fast” they increased conversions 34%!
4. Include A FAQ Box in Checkout: Van der Valk Hotels & Restaurants wanted to increase the conversion rate amongst customers who visited their reservations page. The hotel group surmised that one of the reasons people would abandon the site at an advanced point in the process was due to incomplete information and unanswered questions. So they looked at the questions that were received most by their customer service lines and put the answers up to the right of the reservations page in a FAQ box. The results were a 9.2% higher conversion rate for the page that featured the FAQs.
5. Use People-Focused Language: In a test done for Hubspot in which they were hoping to increase free trials, the company tested a page which asked the visitor what their goals were: “Use Web to Grow My Business” or “Deliver More Quality Leads for Less” against a page where they asked who the visitor was: “I’m a Business Owner” or “I’m a Marketer.” The page that focused on the visitor’s role, as opposed to their goal, won out and increased free trials 49.1% for the site.

Though the results of these tests cannot be universally applied to all businesses, the outcomes can provide insights into the way consumers think when presented with marketing materials. And if nothing else, taking the quizzes on which version won is a good (and slightly nerdy) way to kill an afternoon.

Posted by Nicole Hall, Account Manager with Mobilize Worldwide. Mobilize Worldwide develops mobile apps, mobile ad campaigns, mobile websites and just about anything else related to mobile marketing for brands interested in growing their sales and revenue using this new and emerging medium.

Most consumers who encounter a truly awful website will click away to competitor’s site in a matter of milliseconds. But not Vincent Flanders.  On the contrary, he has dedicated a whole book and website to Web Pages That Suck.

It's not pretty when you violate the 5 deadly sins of web design

While the title sounds slightly cruel, the site serves a good purpose. By checking out sites that completely miss the mark, you can make sure you never make the same conversion-killing mistakes that these poor people made.

There are a lot of errors than contribute to a poor website experience, but what follows are the five deadly sins of web design:

1. Over Promotion: Typically, customers visit your site for one of these basic reasons: They need to find information, they need to make a purchase, they need to join a community or they need to be entertained. And as such, your site should be dedicated to meeting at least one of those needs, not just promoting your company.
2. Lack of Focus: People should be able to tell what your company does within 5 seconds of visiting your site. If users can’t easily figure out what your company does, and consequently, what value you can bring to them, they will immediately click away. Irrelevant graphics and fluffy copy will just confuse your customer and slash your conversion rate.
3. Too Little Contrast: People need to be able to read what you write. Don’t make it hard on people to read your copy by making it light gray on a white background, or even worse, hot pink on lime green. If users have to strain to read your info, they’ll just choose to read it somewhere else.
4. Getting In Your Own Way: Make it easy for your visitor to take action. This seems obvious, but  distracting graphics, needless splash pages and registrations often do just that. If a consumer visits your site with the goal in mind to make a purchase, let them do it without throwing up roadblocks and distractions.
5. Putting All Your Eggs In One Basket: Your website is undoubtedly an important marketing tool in your overall strategy, but you need to be realistic about how much a website can achieve. You cannot expect a website to replace all other forms of media and trying to design a website that does so is a recipe for disaster.

There are a lot of ways for websites to go awry, but keeping a customer focus and using a little common sense will help you avoid many of the common pitfalls… and ensure that you are not deemed a Web Page that Sucks.

Posted by Nicole Hall, Account Manager with Mobilize Worldwide. Mobilize Worldwide develops mobile apps, mobile ad campaigns, mobile websites and just about anything else related to mobile marketing for brands interested in growing their sales and revenue using this new and emerging medium.

By Robert Clay, Founder and President, Marketing Wizdom

Late this afternoon I put out the following message on Twitter: “Have created 3 stunning websites in 2 days. Used to use vastly expensive web design company who took 6 months to achieve fraction of the same result.”

The tweet immediately excited massive interest. Several people wanted to know what software I had used. A professional web designer from South Africa responded “Impossible … send URL’s please,” which of course I did.

One person said “Wow, three websites in 2 days = impressive!” He then asked me how I achieved such fast website building and how much I’d charge to create a CMS website for him. My response to him, and to anyone else with the same question, is that whilst I can build websites rapidly and very competently, it is not what I do, nor is it a service I am ever likely to offer.

The best I can do is explain what I did and how it came about. So here goes …

In the past I used vastly expensive web designers …

In the past I believed that web design, to be any good, should be left in the hands of the professionals. When a valued client needed a new website a couple of years ago, I immediately suggested a web design company with an excellent reputation, who had developed and refined their own content management system over many years. I had known the owner of the company for nearly a decade, and also knew several of their satisfied clients. So I recommended that they do the design.

The company was briefed in October 2007. They came up with a proposal at the end of November. The proposal was finally approved and the company started work on a “functional specification.” This went backwards and forwards a few times until it was approved in February 2008. It took four months to get this far.

I commissioned a first class copywriter to come up with the copy, based on a 20-page master document we had already created. The copywriter turned the job around in a few days, and the copy was ready to go by the end of February. No problems there. He did an excellent job.

Based on a briefing from the graphic designer who had designed my client’s visual branding, the web designers came up with a mockup of the proposed home page early in March. It went backwards and forwards numerous times before we were happy with it. In mid-May the design was finally approved. It had taken 7 months to reach this stage.

From there the web designers set about building the website. This involved building the main menu structure, which then couldn’t easily be changed, and a series of page templates based on the approved design. They also had to integrate a blog, the means to show random testimonials, random team profiles and a few other small refinements. This took another 6 weeks.

Finally, early in July 2008 we took delivery of the unpopulated website. It had taken 9 months to get this far.

We then added images and copy to all the pages, which took about a day. A few days were spent testing and tweaking the site, and getting the bugs worked out. The finished result was presented to the client and approved. And in mid July it went live.

But all was not well. Fifteen months and many £ thousands after starting the project, the blogs still didn’t work, the content management system was clunky with a dreadful user interface and turned out to be a real pain in the backside … and the client was not happy.

Then I discovered WordPress … and everything suddenly changed

While all this was going on, someone recommended that I look at WordPress. I had looked at it casually some 2-3 years earlier, but wasn’t overly impressed at the time. It was suggested that I should look at WordPress + Bluehost + Woo Themes.

I looked into all three, and was very impressed this time. Set up an account with Bluehost. It was hassle free and only took a few seconds. Transferred my domain across, again a painless process. Within a minute or two I had installed WordPress using tools provided in the Bluehost control panel, and was ready to go.

The back end of the WordPress Content Management System turned out to be VASTLY superior to that used in the very expensive website described above. Yet anyone can install WordPress, and it costs nothing.

I added some pages. It was both easy and intuitive. Arranged them in the order I wanted. Set up my preferences. Downloaded some useful plugins. Found some attractive design themes, many of them available free of charge. Uploaded the ones I liked to the site. Experimented with them. Settled on one I liked and started to build the site.

Even as a novice it took me less than a day in total, excluding ongoing tweaks to the copy. My only outlay was for a few stock images from iStockPhoto, but they weren’t expensive at about $3 apiece (now $5). Within a day I had an excellent website up and running using a very robust platform that was also used by millions of others. And it cost me next to nothing.

Over time I discovered other attractive themes and useful plug-ins that could add extra functionality to the site. I eventually decided to switch to a premium theme. But at $20 a year, it was hardly expensive … and if you’re reading this now at marketingwzdom.com, you’re viewing the final result right now.

I started my blog. Within its first month it ranked in the top 2% in the world. The site is professionally designed, looks good and gets frequent compliments. In its first 7 months it attracted some 150,000 visitors from 90 countries, and ranks within the top 5% of sites in the world. And that’s without even trying.

The WordPress content management system is also extremely robust. And intuitive. I couldn’t say either of those things about the so-called professionally designed website described earlier, even though the developer is considered to be one of the best out there. My WordPress installation made that system obsolete overnight.

Which brings me to the subject of my tweet …

Three new sites in just two days

Having seen how easy WordPress was to use, my partner was often frustrated by the complete ineptitude of some of the web designers she’d had to deal with on behalf of her clients. Trivial matters were often blown up into big issues, and simplest tasks were made to seem impossible to perform.

So when her sister needed a new website for her business, my partner offered to create one for her. As recently as a year ago she would never have dreamed that she would ever be able to put a website together, let alone a decent one. A client for whom she produces newsletters also needed a new website, so she offered to put that one together too.

She initially spent a few days putting the sites together using some free WordPress themes, and getting up to speed on WordPress in general. I felt they needed to look more professional and wasn’t keen on the typography, but found that it was’t too easy to customise them.

Around that time I heard about the Canvas theme from Woo Themes. I checked it out and was very impressed by its capabilities as described on their site http://www.woothemes.com/. I suggested to my partner that she should use the Canvas theme, which can easily be customised in dozens of ways.

A few days later we needed a new site to promote an upcoming joint venture with one of my clients. By now I knew exactly what was entailed in putting together a WordPress site, and knew what Canvas was designed to do. I knew I could get the unpopulated site up and running in a matter of hours using WordPress and Canvas.

I then discovered that Woo Themes offers something called the Woo Themes Playground, where you can set up a free account and experiment with any of their themes as if it were installed on your own site. I signed up and in an hour or two had pulled together a really nice customised site using Canvas. And yes it turned out to be every bit as good as claimed.

Can you really create 3 websites in 2 days? Read on to discover how Robert Clay completed this task.

First website — Sunday

I bought the Canvas theme. It was $70. Within a few minutes my partner’s sister’s site had been switched to Canvas. I spent an hour or two setting up the navigation, pages, posts and styling for the theme, deciding which pages should have three columns; two columns or be full width. In Canvas this is a doddle to set up. It is also extremely easy to set up custom navigation. The theme is a joy to use.

Using Photoshop I came up with a nice full width header image. I’ve been using Photoshop since 1990, soon after it was originally launched, so it only took a few minutes to do this, even though I only use the program occasionally and am now somewhat rusty with it. Loaded the resulting image onto the site. It looked great. Tweaked the colour scheme so that it complimented the header image. Then arranged to meet my partner’s sister to get her feedback and tweak it while we met. That was two days ago.

She liked the design immediately. We spent a couple of hours tweaking it here and there over a coffee. She was delighted. Within hours we had accomplished a whole lot more than the professional web designers had achieved in 9 months, at a cost of £ many thousands. It’s now just a matter of adding the copy and images, which doesn’t take long, and the site will be ready to go live.

Second website — Monday

The following morning, i.e. yesterday, I had arranged to meet a colleague and my joint venture partner to decide what we needed to include on the joint venture website. I decided to create the site there and then in the meeting. This would have been inconceivable a couple of years ago.

We met at a hotel and used their Wifi to connect to the web. I set up a new account with Bluehost. Within a minute WordPress was installed and ready to go. Uploaded the Canvas theme, and we were in business. By now I knew my way around the theme’s customisation options, so it took no time to get up to speed on the finer details.

We decided on the fly which pages would be needed. We created them there and then. We also set up some special blog post categories to use within the navigation, and created several dummy blog posts for each of the special categories to check that the navigation worked as intended. It did. A few minutes later we had created the navigation menu structure using a combination of pages and categories — very easy to do with Canvas.

In fact I learned that Woo Themes’ custom navigation menu set up has impressed WordPress to such an extent that they have delayed the release of WordPress 3.0 to incorporate this functionality into the final release. I can confirm that it revolutionises the construction of navigation menus. You decide what pages or categories you want to use, then just drag and drop them into the sequence you want, edit display names as appropriate and click save. Job done.

We then tweaked the menu descriptions and words a few times. Within a few minutes we were all delighted with the result. Then it was a matter of finalising the look and feel of the site before we went our separate ways again.

I looked through various images I already owned to see if one could be repurposed as a full width header. Found one that was perfect. Cropped it to size. Uploaded it. It looked great. We decided to blend it with a cityscape image to communicate the right message at a glance.

Looked for a suitable cityscape image from a stock image library. Found the right one almost immediately. Bought it there and then. Fired up Photoshop. In a minute or two the two images were blended together (one of my colleagues said he’d had to pay £ thousands in the past to achieve a similar effect) and I added some text to the banner.

Uploaded the banner image to the site. It looked great. Tweaked the colour scheme on the site to complement the header image. Again it really only took a few minutes, and we had a result we were all delighted with.

I gave my colleagues access to the back-end content management system. One of them spent a couple of hours today copying and pasting the appropriate text. It took five minutes to link the site to a third party payment processor. The copy now just needs tweaking, refining and editing. And we need to select and add a few images to lift the pages before the site goes live.

Once again, we accomplished in well under half a day what the web designers took 9 months to deliver … and every part of what we created in that short time works exactly as it should, unlike the vastly expensive web site I described at the beginning of this piece.

Third site — Monday Evening

The third site? When I got back from yesterday’s meeting my partner asked me to help her with her second site. I started after dinner yesterday evening, and the job was completed before I had to go to bed. I spent an hour or two this morning working out how to incorporate an image slide show on the home page. Figured it out with a bit of delving. And hey presto the job was done. And she was delighted.

The end result? 3 great looking websites in less than 2 days. They still need to be populated with copy and images before going live. But that’s not a big job. The point is that using WordPress and Canvas we have accomplished three times as much in two days as the professional web designers managed to accomplish with just one site in 9 months, and at vast cost.

Can anyone create a decent site in half a day?

Can anyone turn out really decent sites this easily? Yes, but with a couple of caveats. Whether the end result looks professional enough to impress is down to your eye for design; flair for colour selection and ability to arrange the elements in a visually appealing manner. An attractive and intuitive user interface also makes or breaks the design for me. Not everyone has those skills and abilities, including plenty of professional web designers. And not everyone has the tools to hand that I had, like Photoshop and Easycrop, or the knowledge of how to use them to produce a particular result. And not everyone will start the task with the workable plan in their head, that I had, from the moment they start using the tools.

I should also point out that when I say “create a site” I’m referring to building a fully functional but unpopulated site. Copy and images would still have to be added. But this is no harder than using a word processor. And if the content has already been planned and written, it doesn’t entail much more than copying, pasting, and uploading the relevant images from your computer to the site. The most time-consuming task, in my experience, is finding the right images to use.

If you’re completely unfamiliar with WordPress, Photoshop and image libraries it might take you a week to achieve the result I was able to produce in half a day. But that’s still way better than the months, vast cost and endless frustration entailed in using some of the traditional web designers out there who still (unwittingly?) use obsolete methods to achieve inferior results at vastly inflated costs. And once the first site is up and running, it won’t take you long to set up a second one based on what you learn from the first one.

People who already know WordPress, Woo Themes’ Canvas, and many of the other good premium WordPress themes won’t be particularly surprised by any of this. But lots of other people will, I’m sure, be shaken to the core. Based on the responses to my tweet earlier, and the considerable interest it generated, this really does change everything!

If you’ve had experience with WordPress and can recommend certain themes or plugins, please share your experiences by leaving your comments below.

Update: Since this piece was written I have moved the Marketing Wizdom site across to Canvas as well.

By Robert Clay, Founder and President of Marketing Wizdom, Milton Keynes, U.K.

We found a fun, cool website that provides some compelling A/B test results on website designs. Ann Holland’s WhichTestWon.com does simple website results testing. Visitors have the opportunity to choose which website design they think did better in test results, and then to read which page actually won in real life. Some test results are a little more scientific than others, but they still give some ideas for improving your websites.

Here are a few of their findings:

1. Click Here works better than hyperlinked words. They found that using calls to action such as “To visit our website, click here” was 72.5% more effective than “Visit our Website.”

2. Putting the add-to-cart option on the left side of the page increased purchases.   Simply by moving the add-to-cart button from the traditional right side of the screen increased sales by 16.7%. There was no definitive explanation for why this was so, but it worked.

3. Multi-page forms generally work better than single page forms.   Results from an application form page found that users were more likely to fill out more, shorter pages versus one longer page. It was pointed out, however, that audience preferences vary on different e-commerce sites.

If you are trying to improve your website’s design, this website is a good source to get you thinking.

Text is perhaps your website’s most important asset. Make it flow with these quick tips:

1.  Research shows that most people don’t read – they scan instead. Therefore, make the most highly trafficked pages easier to scan. If your current site consists of large blocks of text, break it up so that it’s easier for the average internet user to scan.

2. Consider using bullet points, short sentences and bold text wherever possible.

3. Write your meaningful headlines instead of vague or cutesy.

Short and simple works!

Imagine this. The potential customer has found your website. They’re looking, they’re focusing, they’re reaching for their mouse… but where will they click?

Of course, we want them to click on a link within our site, and not bounce away from the site. Then we  want to see them click our call to action.

What are some ways you can improve the chances that a customer will stay on our website?

1. Improve readability. Add white space, or change fonts (see 7 Secrets for Choosing the Right Font for Your Webpage). Get rid of clutter. Readers are more likely to stay on a site where it’s easier to see the information.

2. Write great headlines. Attracting readers is a big part of the game. But don’t write outrageous headlines that don’t match the content. Readers will learn to distrust your site and will go away.

3. Include customer testimonials. These compel the reader to trust your claims, increasing the chance they’ll look around on your site.

4. Have videos on the site. A picture’s worth a thousand lines of HTML, as they say.

5. Have a blog where employees contribute. Prospects are more likely to trust the people behind the company versus the “company.” Adding the opinion of real people, even customers, can be of more interest to the readers.

6. Make your call to action obvious on your landing page. Be sure to include the solutions that you are providing also. The place to click needs to be obvious.

7. Put most important information above the fold. Users need to see the crux of your message without having to scroll.

8. Make it easy to find information. You’ve been on those sites where it’s just difficult to find what you’re looking for.  If it’s easier for the reader to go back to the original search and try another company, they will.

9. Provide access to tools your customers need. Assessment tools, links to useful sites, or calculation tools will keep users coming back, even if they aren’t buying today.

10. Have a prominent Search Box. Users need to have an easy way to find just what they are looking for.

Look at your site from a consumer’s point of view. What would drive you away? Try some of these tips and watch your bounce rate decrease.

There is quite a bit of debate on the web about what font is best for websites. It seems that every blogger has their preference. Some prefer Verdana, 10-point, and others prefer Arial, but only at 12-point. Times New Roman, while supposedly attractive, doesn’t appear to be easier to read. The most legible are considered to be Arial, Courier, Calibri, and Verdana.

There are only a few fonts to choose from that all computers can read. Verdana, Georgia and Trebuchet are installed on Apple and Windows operating systems, so are sure bets. Times New Roman (serif) and Arial (sans serif) are usually the default computer fonts when a certain font isn’t readable.

So what will you choose for your websites? Without getting too deep into the Great Font Fights, here are some tips to consider:

1) Choose Serif or Sans Serif: Serif fonts have those little lines at the points of the letters, like this. They make the eye flow easily from one letter to the next, especially in high resolution print. For low resolution, like most computer screens, sans serif is preferred. However, remember Times New Roman has a feeling of formality and establishment, and that can work in your favor on a website where reliability or trustworthiness is important.

2) Study the studies: Here’s an interesting study done in 2001 on readability of fonts online. Conclusion? Arial 12 pt, or Verdana 10 and 9 pt.    http://bit.ly/WilsonFontStudy

3) Decide what message you want to get across: Comic Sans is a fun typeface, as the name implies. A law firm doesn’t need a fun font. It needs a serious font, perhaps like Times New Roman. Don’t let the font distract from your overall message. And this from the web designer sitting near my workspace: “Never, ever, ever use Comic Sans unless you are sending a picture of a kitten to your grandmother.”

4) Test what the fonts will look like: Here are two very cool websites that allow you to try different fonts and sizes on sample text. Decide what looks best for your purpose.

http://bit.ly/TypeTester

http://bit.ly/JiggetyTest

5) Go for the quick read: As mentioned, Arial, Courier, Calibri, and Verdana are easily read. Verdana is generally considered best by designers.  Larger fonts can help, but too large makes it harder for the eye to capture a grouping of words, which makes it slower to read.

6) Consider the background: There’s a reason most print is black print on white background. White text with black background can be OK, too. But avoid ultra-contrast, such as red text on green background. Yikes. Be sure the font you’ve chosen is easily read on the background you’ve used.

7) Keep it simple: No more than three fonts per webpage, please. Don’t confuse your reader. Use Times New Roman for headlines, and Arial for the body, and your readers will thank you.

What are your favs? Have you had any lightbulbs go off with regards to fonts? Let us hear from you.

As marketers, we know how to sell a product. But have you considered that your website is a product also? Apply some of the techniques that you know so well in marketing to “sell” your website to your customers. Make it customer focused rather than company focused, by trying these techniques:

1. Avoid the “It’s All About Us” Syndrome: The website, surely, has to describe your services and sell your product. But it doesn’t have to do that to the exclusion of meeting your customers’ needs. Can your customer find what they need at all? Can they get their questions answered? Can they get further help from a person if needed? If your website is filled only with words telling how wonderful you are, you’re making it harder for the customer to solve their problem.

2. Provide topics that the reader needs: The website should catch the reader’s attention because there’s a benefit for the reader to be there. In fact, you can even provide topics that explain what the reader needs. Whether you are listing reasons why they should use your services, or you are sharing blogs, the reader needs to see the WIIFM – the What’s In It For Me.

3. Don’t lose credibility: Be sure any claims you make on your site can be backed up. Have customer testimonials, real examples, demonstrations, and/or pictures. If the customers doubt your intentions, they won’t dance with you anymore.

4. Engage the readers: Provide places for the readers to give your company feedback, whether through a link to your Twitter or Facebook site, or through a forum.  Readers are more likely to come back to your site if they feel they are not only gaining information from it, but also contributing to it. Related Links, Live Chat, or membership privileges all engage the visitor.

5. Make it an Easy Sell: We’ve all been on those websites that took so many clicks to find what we were looking for, we gave up. Make the sections easy to find, easy to click, and easy to get back from.

Use these techniques to build a website that focuses on the customer’s needs instead of the company’s needs, and see if you don’t get better responses to your website.

The premise behind the new book Ordinary Greatness, by Pamela Bilbrey and Brian Jones, is that there are people all around who are everyday people doing great things every day.  One of the ideas they promote deserves attention: Read at least six books a year. What a way to keep your marketing skills up to date, and up your awareness of the world around you. It will help you become great.

One of the ways many of us get our information nowadays, however, is not in books. (How sad, sayeth I.)  We get info doing exactly the way you are doing it right now. We read the web.

And here’s some interesting statistics they found that are relevant to our customers who provide information to customers on the web.

“Scholars form University College of London found that people who get their knowledge from online sources do it in a very distinctive way: They bounce from one source to another, rarely reading the piece in its entirety. The study reports: “It is clear that users are not ‘reading’ online in the traditional sense: indeed, there are signs that new forms of ‘reading’ are emerging as users “power browse” horizontally through titles, content pages and abstracts going to quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense.”

What does that mean to you as you design your websites? What successful designs for your web pages have you found? Give us your ideas.